DAY #12 SPORTS FOCUS: Italy’s ‘Blond Angel’ Fontana wins her 11th Olympic medal as South Korea tops the Beijing 2022 short track medals table

Like a fine Italian wine, Arianna Fontana has become better with age.

The ‘Blond Angel’ won her 11th career short track speed skating medal, a silver in the women’s 1500m, just edged out for gold by South Korean phenom Choi Min-jeong on Wednesday night at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beiing.

The 31-year-old Italian athlete, who is competing at her fifth Olympic Games, capped off a most impressive three-medal performance at the Beijing Games – a 500m gold medal and silvers in the new 2,000m mixed team relay and women’s 1,500-meters, the final short track event on the ice in Beijing.

Fontana unleashed an attack on Choi with two laps to go, swiftly moving through the seven-woman field, and nearly overtaking the Korean at the line, missing gold by just .07 seconds in a photo finish.

“It wasn’t easy to maintain the focus,” Fontana said, about the last Olympic race of her illustrious career. “Race by race, I was ready but this one I gave it everything I have. It was the last one and I was going to go for it. When I crossed the line I was overwhelmed again.”

Fontana, is a master tactician who has skated with power and poise throughout her career at just five-foot, three-inches, while Choi, a three-time world champion and now double Olympic 1500m gold medalist is her heir apparent at 23, her best years likely still ahead.

Collecting her 11th medal in her final Olympic race, the Italian speed skater passed former cross-country skier Stefania Belmondo, who won 10 medals across four Winter Games, to become Italy’s most decorated Winter Olympian.

“I am standing here with another silver medal - after Sochi (2014), I got three medals and thought it would be really hard to do better, and I did better,” Fontana said. “So after PyeongChang (2018), I didn’t know what was going to happen. I am going home with two silvers and a gold, better than PyeongChang. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Fontana is also the most successful short track Olympic medalist in history with her 11 total, three more than American Apolo Anton Ohno and Viktor Ahn, who raced for both Russia and South Korea.

Allison Baver, a retired U.S. skater, who propelled her U.S. relay team to a bronze medal in Vancouver 2010 and is still the American record holder in the women’s 1500m, offered insight about Fontana and what exactly has made her the GOAT of the high-speed, thrilling, action sport.

“What I saw from Arianna was a fierceness to her, she was definitely different than other up-and-coming skaters in the world,” Baver said, about her days competing alongside the Italian. “She was a fighter and having this fearless attitude is what set her apart from her competitors.

“She has always been very smart in terms of the moves she is making and I always liked watching her develop, hone in on her strengths and look at her now.

“It reminds me when someone gets on stage at an awards show and it’s like look at me now,” Baver said. “I love that it’s a woman who has the most medals in short track,” said Baver, a three-time Olympian who used to date Ohno, who trails the female Italian legend by three medals.

Canada holds off powerhouse South Korea in the men’s 5,000m relay

In the men’s 5,000-meter relay, Canada took charge of the race with ten laps to go and South Korea in hot pursuit. The Canadians accelerated and pulled away from their challengers with two laps remaining and then held off a final charge to win relay gold by .42 seconds. As the pace rapidly progressed, a Chinese skater lost an edged, got twisted and crashed into the pads, ending the country’s hopes.

The South Korean silver was their fifth short track medal of the Beijing Games, topping the medal count by one, ahead of rival China, Italy, Canada and the Netherlands.

With the five medals, South Korea increased their all-time leading Olympic medal tally to 53, while China and Canada are tied for second, each with 37.

Baver, who was coached by elite Chinese skater Li Yan, offered perspective about the passion and strong culture behind the two Asian nations’ leading to their long-term success in the sport.

“What makes them so strong is that China’s infrastructure, from a team perspective is amazing, and Korea they develop talent from a very age,” Baver explained. “They train them very hard and historically I’ve seen skaters get burnt out because Korea is so hard on the athletes in terms of pushing them beyond limits that are borderline physical abuse.

“But the Koreans made a change and they recognized we need to change our style and a lot of other countries, because the Koreans are so strong on the technical side, started to hire Korean coaches.

“China is very team-focused – when my coach Li Yan came to the United States, she would make all the girls lift the same amount of weight in the gym – it was so funny,” she said. “Those little tiny differences is what separates China from other countries.”

The U.S. hopes to return to their glory days of the sport, years past led by Ohno and the team possessing depth across all events. At Vancouver 2010, the Americans medaled in every event.

Baver said that she and her U.S. teammates emulated everything about South Korean short track speed skating and the country’s skaters.

“Eat, sleep and skate, that’s what Korea and China do,” she said. “We had this idea that we were going to become Korean. We ate only Korean food, I’m not kidding you.”

Team USA goes 1-2 in men’s slopestyle, men’s hockey semifinals are set

Alexander Hall pulled off his exceedingly difficult 1080 pretzel one trick, halting his rotation three spins in, appearing to hover as he reversed his direction mid-air and spun backwards before nailing the landing. It was plenty enough to astound the judges as he won men’s slopestyle gold at Genting Snow Park.

Hall’s veteran U.S. teammate Nicholas Goepper claimed silver, his third medal in the event following silver at PyeongChang 2018 and bronze at Sochi 2014.

In action on the ice, all four men’s hockey quarterfinals were contested and now just four countries remain.

Slovakia upset the undefeated United States in a shoot-out, 3-2. The Russian Olympic Committee beat feisty Denmark 3-1, while Finland got the best of Switzerland 5-1. In the fourth contest, Sweden shutout Canada 2-0.

Finland plays Slovakia in the first semifinal on Friday, followed by ROC versus Sweden, as the Russians seek to defend their gold medal from PyeongChang 2018.

In the men’s slalom, Frenchman Clement Noel charged to gold, while Austrian Johannes Strauss won silver to go along with his Alpine combined gold, joining his father Hubert, who raced to giant slalom gold in Calgary 1988. There are now two proud Olympic champions in the family.

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